Boston Marathon explosions rattle Saugus family

One thought crossed Bob Catinazzo’s mind when word spread among Boston Marathon runners that two explosions erupted near the Copley Square finish line.

Mike Gaffney/mgaffney@wickedlocal.com

One thought crossed Bob Catinazzo’s mind when word spread among Boston Marathon runners that two explosions erupted near the Copley Square finish line.

“All I wanted to do was get to mile 25 to see my family,” Saugus resident Catinazzo said. “My wife and son were there and I had to make sure they were safe.”

Catinazzo still had a few miles to go to complete his fifth Boston Marathon when rumblings began about bombs going off at the end of the course. He runs without a cell phone, but a fellow member of the Boston Children’s Hospital team next to him kept receiving ominous text messages.

“It was a surreal scene,” Catinazzo said. “A police officer came over and told us the race is over.”

Catinazzo managed to catch up with his wife and son and was relieved to find out they escaped injury. The trio then spent the next several hours trying to get to the Westin Copley where the family truck was parked.

“They weren’t letting people into the Westin, so we went over to the T stop and it was shut down,” Catinazzo said. “We just wanted to get out of there, so we jumped into a cab and $50 later we were home.”

Wandering the streets of Boston was extremely nerve-wracking as rumors circulated of additional suspicious devices and bombs that had yet to go off, Catinazzo said. Then came the news of another explosion at the JFK Library.

Catinazzo said all of the runners for the Children’s Hospital team had checked in and to his knowledge were OK — but he couldn’t speak to whether the blasts hurt any of their family members.

Catinazzo stressed that the Boston Marathon coordinators and police did the right thing shutting down the race to keep people away from a finish line that turned into a crime scene. He also credited the first responders for putting their own lives on the line to tend to the wounded.

What really troubles Catinazzo is how a senseless tragedy marred a beautiful day where people raise money for great institutions such as Boston Children’s Hospital.

“To me this is the most unique day in the country, where else do you run a marathon on a Monday?” Catinazzo said. “Now it’s changed. It won’t ever be the same.”

Catinazzo said he’d love to run to support the Children’s Hospital again in the future, but it will be a while before his family gets over the experience.

“My 12-year-old son (a Belmonte Middle School student) doesn’t want to back to Boston again,” Catinazzo said. “I don’t know what to say. I’m at a loss for words.”